ABSTRACT
The nature of psychiatric diagnosis has evolved considerably. For a long time, its use had been restricted to psychiatric expertise that slowly elaborated a detailed nosography based on clinical observation. Clinical discussions motivated psychiatrists who were looking for the most refined semiological systems possible, thanks to a process of observation that was increasingly differentiated; however, these refinements had little effect on therapeutic procedures and most often they had no effect at all. Since the 1960s, psychiatric nosography has become more and more pharmacologically induced, and mental pathologies have been redistributed and renamed based on the effects of drugs. Psychotropic drugs affect emotions, behavior, affects and moods; their use had a major impact on nosographic parameters. Since its origins, psychiatry has been guilty of two original sins. The first is its supposed non-scientificity; the second is the fact of incarceration.
